Meseraic

Use in the book

The digestive anatomy explains why these vessels matter. Blood is said to be prepared in the mesenteric veins and made in the liver from digested nourishment. The portal vein receives the mesenteric veins, through which the material passes from stomach and intestines to liver. A description of the jejunum attaches many such veins to it; the mesentery itself supports the intestines and contains veins, arteries and fat. These routes and functions belong to Burton’s historical physiology. The word’s useful modern equivalent does not make the entire account modern.

A terminological difficulty must remain visible. Burton calls the supporting structure “Mesenterium or Midriffe” in the anatomy, but elsewhere brings together mesentery, midriff and diaphragm. The latter passage invokes Greek φρένας, a form associated with the midriff and, in the explanation offered, its relation to mental disturbance. Mesentery and diaphragm are different structures in modern anatomy. The edition retains the source’s overlapping names, and this article does not silently standardize them. The Greek word belongs to that local explanation, not to the morphology of the English meseraic family.

These vessels become causal candidates when obstructed or overheated. One account makes stomach and mesenteric veins contribute together; Guianerius is then credited with the stronger claim that the veins alone suffice. Montaltus, citing Galen, explains how their blockage prevents or delays the passage of digested material to the liver and allows corruption, rumbling and wind. The illustrative cases that follow describe heat in veins between stomach and liver. Other authorities subsequently stress a hot liver with a cold stomach, a weak liver, a cold liver, or failures of the spleen. The mesenteric account is one position within that argument, not its final unanimous resolution.

Laurentius’s three abdominal kinds include a meseraic kind alongside liver-related and splenic melancholy. In the symptom catalogue, a proposed origin in the mesenteric veins and liver is associated with little or no appetite, as opposed to the strong appetite and poor digestion attributed to a splenic origin. “On the other side” marks this contrast; it does not relocate the liver to the left side of the body. The whole catalogue is conditional and follows an acknowledgement of difficulty in identifying the chiefly affected part.

The treatment language extends from veins to membrane. Remedies are proposed to clear the mesenteric veins, while Laurentius praises leech-induced bleeding as a way to empty the spleen and “Meseriack membrane.” The next paragraph records Montanus’s objection that such bleeding removes thin blood and leaves thick behind. The organ-specific remedy and its objection should be read together. None of these historical preparations or procedures is endorsed here as present-day care.

Related entries

Organical parts; Anatomical membranes; Hypochondria; Myrach; Spleen; Bowels; Chyle; Concoction; Humour; Consent and essence

Places to read

1. First Partition synopsis, unnumbered preliminary mattermiseriack veins among internal causes of windy melancholy
2. First Partition, humours and veinspreparation of blood and the alleged route from intestines to liver
3. First Partition, composite partsvessels attached to the jejunum and the mesentery’s supporting function
4. First Partition, kinds of melancholythe abdominal classification and its meseraic subdivision
5. First Partition, inward causesthe catalogue, joint and sufficient causes, the mesentery/diaphragm wording, blocked passage and competing explanations
6. First Partition, symptomsuncertain localization and the contrast between appetite patterns
7. Second Partition, treatment of hypochondriacal melancholyclearing the veins, emptying the membrane and Montanus’s objection to the proposed bleeding

In this edition

The spelling variants “miseriack veins,” “Meseraick veines” and “Meseraicke veins” all become “mesenteric veins”, the two passages respectively. “Meseraical” can stand elliptically for the veins in the portal-vein branch list; the modern text supplies the noun. “Meseriack membrane” becomes “mesenteric membrane,” which names the supporting abdominal tissue rather than another vein.

The supplied modern text openly preserves “the mesentery, here called the midriff” and the later conjunction of mesentery with diaphragm. At the blocked-passage explanation, it distinguishes the passage being delayed from the digested material being corrupted; the older sentence compresses those subjects together. In the Latin case description, the veins are “between” stomach and liver, while Burton’s following English gloss says “about” them. Both formulations are retained rather than claimed as identical word-level translations.

Mesenterium

Printed “Mesenterium” (Latin noun in English construction). Attestation: word form.

Supporting abdominal tissue amid the intestines, described as containing vessels and fat.

Argument: Local identity must not erase the separate diaphragm use.

Context: Burton’s anatomy uses midriff for mesentery here.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: the Mesenterium or Midriffe

Modern rendering: the mesentery, here called the midriff

Alignment convention

Qualification: Original and modern units are exact substrings of the paired source.

Meseraical

Printed “Meseraical” (English). Attestation: word form.

Mesenteric veins named by an adjective in the branch list.

Argument: A substantive adjective whose noun is supplied in modern English.

Context: Burton’s anatomical classification.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: The branches of that Vena porta are the Meseraical and Hæmorrhoides.

Modern rendering: The branches of the portal vein are the mesenteric and haemorrhoidal veins.

Alignment convention

Qualification: Whole list aligns; mesenteric is the first branch class, and veins supplies the elliptical noun.

meseraical Veins

Printed “meseraical Veins” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Veins that join the portal route in the historical transport of digestive material toward the liver.

Argument: Keeps carrier, material and destination distinct.

Context: Burton’s anatomy; portal vein is the receiving vessel.

Source: original body

Source wording: receiving those meseraical Veins

Meseraick

Printed “Meseraick” (English). Attestation: word form.

A kind of melancholy named for the mesentery as its proposed source.

Argument: Adjectival disease label, not itself a vein name.

Context: Laurentius’s threefold abdominal classification.

Source: original body

Source wording: Meseraick Melancholy

Meseraick veines · local use 1

Printed “Meseraick veines” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Citation key, Printed form, Source wording: Meseraick veines

Veins of the intestinal supporting tissue listed among possible bodily causes of melancholy.

Argument: Old article’s anatomical cause route retained.

Context: Burton’s broad cause catalogue.

Source: original body

Meseraick veines · local use 2

Printed “Meseraick veines” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Intestinal veins proposed as a bodily source sufficient by itself to produce the disorder.

Argument: Preserves sufficiency and alone rather than reducing to generic contribution.

Context: Explicitly attributed to Guianerius.

Source: original body

Source wording: the Meseraick veines to be a sufficient cause alone

Meseraicke veines

Printed “Meseraicke veines” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Intestinal-region veins assigned a preliminary role in the production of blood.

Argument: Distinguishes preparation in veins from making blood in the liver.

Context: Burton’s inherited physiological account.

Source: original body

Source wording: prepared in the Meseraicke veines

meseraicke veins

Printed “meseraicke veins” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Veins whose overheating and blockage allegedly interrupt the passage of digested material to the liver.

Argument: The source then shifts from obstructed passage to corrupted material.

Context: Montaltus cites Galen for an immediate cause.

Source: original body

Source wording: heat and obstruction of those meseraicke veins

Meseraicke veins

Printed “Meseraicke veins” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Conditional mesenteric-and-liver origin associated with reduced appetite.

Argument: On the other side marks argument contrast, not anatomical left/right.

Context: Hercules de Saxonia is named; preceding splenic-origin account has much appetite.

Source: original body

Source wording: If from the Meseraicke veins and liver on the other side, little or no appetite

Meseriack membrane

Printed “Meseriack membrane” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Mesenteric supporting tissue alleged to be emptied by the proposed bleeding.

Argument: Extends the family from vessels to membrane while preserving dissent.

Context: Laurentius praises the leech remedy; Montanus objects in the following paragraph.

Source: original body

Source wording: to empty the spleen and Meseriack membrane

Meseriack veins

Printed “Meseriack veins” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Mesenteric veins as targets of remedies supposed to clear obstructed passages.

Argument: Preserves the cleansing sense without endorsing efficacy.

Context: Historical treatment recommendation.

Source: original body

Source wording: to scoure the Meseriack veins

miseriack veins

Printed “miseriack veins” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Citation key, Printed form, Source wording: miseriack veins

Veins serving the intestinal region, listed among possible internal causes of windy melancholy.

Argument: Old article’s first route, with scan-page locator corrected.

Context: Synopsis of possible causes, not an assertion that all patients have disease in these veins.

Source: original body

Locator qualification: Source record identifies these leaves as unnumbered; plain numerical passage labels are scan numbers.

venæ meseraicæ

Printed “venæ meseraicæ” (Latin). Attestation: phrase.

Mesenteric veins acting jointly with the stomach in the quoted causal account.

Argument: Separate from Guianerius’s stronger veins-alone claim in the body.

Context: Marginal proposition about their joint contribution because both are obstructed.

Source: original marginal quotation with editorial translation

Source wording, Original wording: Ventriculus & venæ meseraicæ concurrunt

Modern rendering: The stomach and mesenteric veins contribute

Alignment convention

Qualification: Whole subject and predicate align; venæ meseraicæ corresponds only to mesenteric veins.

φρένας

Printed “φρένας” (Greek). Attestation: word form.

Greek form used here for the midriff in a passage connecting inflammation with disturbance of mind.

Argument: Contextual Greek term, not a cognate member of the meseraic family.

Context: Burton’s reported Greek nomenclature amid a conflation of mesentery and diaphragm.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: which the Greeks called φρένας

Modern rendering: the part the Greeks called phrenas

Alignment convention

Qualification: The Greek token is transliterated; surrounding relative construction is clarified in English.